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California  academy  of  sciences 
Doctor  Hans  Herman  Behr . 


Doctor  l)an$  Rcrman  Bebr 


Burn  August  18,  1818 
Died  March  6,  1904 


SAN  FRANCISCO 

Published  by  the  California  Academy  of  Sciences 

1905 


//'M  Z^^^i-^^^' — 


Repurt   of  the   CovrmiUee  Appointed  to  Prepare  and 
Present  an  Account  of  tire  Life  and.  Services  of 

Doctor  Hans  Herman  Behr 

HEAD    BKKIIKE   THE 

California  Academy  of  Sciences 
March  21,  1904 

Hans  PIkrman  Behr,  second  vice-president  of  the  Cal- 
ifornia Academy  of  Sciences,  died  in  San  Francisco  on 
March  6,  1904,  at  the  age  of  eighty-hve  years  and  six 
months.  By  his  death  the  Academy  lost  not  only  one  of 
its  oldest  members  but  also  one  of  its  most  active  and 
successful  workers  in  the  tield  of  natural  sciences. 

Doctor  Behr  was  born  on  August  18,  1818,  at  Coethen, 
in  the  German  duchy  of  Anhalt,  where  his  family  had 
for  centuries  been  })rominently  connected  with  the  admin- 
istration of  that  principality. 

After  receiving  a  thorough  classical  education  at  an 
old  and  well  known  Latin  school,  he  studied  medicine 
and  natural  sciences  at  the  universities  of  Halle,  Wurz- 
l)urg,  and  Berlin.  At  Berlin  he  passed  his  examinations, 
and  in  1843  received  the  degree  of  doctor  of  medicine. 
In  1898,  on  the  occasion  of  his  eightieth  birthday,  this 
degree  was  renewed  by  the  University  of  Berlin  upon  the 
recommendation  of  Behr's  lifelong  friend,  Professor  Ru- 
dolf \"irchow.  Such  renewal  was  an  exceptional  honor 
for  a  German- American  physician. 

In  1844,  encouraged  by  Alexander  von  Humboldt  and 
the  celebrated  geographer,  Karl  Ritter,  Doctor  Behr  went 
to  Australia  to  study  that  then  little  known  country  and 

[  1  ] 


the  life  of  its  aborigines.  Among  the  natives  he  lived 
foi'  some  time,  re})orting  the  results  of  his  studies  in 
Virchow's  'Archiv',  in  the  'Linea3'  of  Professor  Schlech- 
tendahl,  in  'Nature',  and  in  other  (Terman  scientific  })eri- 
odicals.  His  researciies  in  botany  and  entomology,  the 
sciences  which  later  became  his  specialties,  and  his  study 
of  the  language  of  the  Australasians  brought  him  into 
prominence  among  the  workers  in  those  tields  and  into 
lasting  relations  with  many  scientists  of  fame,  notably 
the  late  Australian  State-botanist,  Baron  Mueller  of  Mel- 
bourne. California  is  indebted  to  the  friendship  exist- 
ing between  Behr  and  Baron  Mueller  for  the  introduction 
of  many  valuable  Australian  i)lants. 

From  Australia  Dr.  Behr  extended  his  travels  to  Java, 
the  Straits-Settlements,  the  East  Indies,  and  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope — always  observing,  collecting,  and  describing. 
It  is  readily  understood  that  in  those  years  such  travels 
were  made  with  less  comfort  and  with  greater  risk  to 
health  and  life  than  nowadays. 

In  1847  he  returned  to  Germany  and  commenced  the 
practice  of  medicine  at  Coethen.  However,  he  remained 
there  but  a  year;  for  during  the  turmoils  of  the  revolu- 
tionary year  of  1848,  his  })olitical  views  having  brought 
him  into  antagonism  with  his  family,  he  gave  up  his 
practice  and  undertook  his  second  great  voyage,  journey- 
ing first  to  Brazil  and  other  countries  of  South  America, 
and  thence  to  the  Philippine  Islands.  There,  in  Manila, 
he  I'emained  for  the  next  two  years,  practicing  medicine 
and  exploring  the  country.  In  his  explorations  he  was 
greatly  assisted  by  tlie  information  derived  from  several 
eminent  scientists  whom  he  found  among  tiie  local  Cath- 
olic clergy. 

In  1851  he  came  to  California,  which  he  never  again 
left  except  in  1853,  when  he  made  a  journey  to  Germany 
in  order  to  liring  his  Polish   bride.  Miss  Agnes  Omylska, 

[  -'  ] 


\  V<\ 


loo 

to  liis  San  P'rancisco  home.  From  this  union,  whicli 
unfortunately  was  soon  severed  by  the  deatli  of  the  you n^ 
wife,  there  were  three  children — two  dauojhters,  l)oth  of 
whom  are  now  married  and  livino;  in  Coethen,  and  one 
son,  Hans  C.  Behr,  a  mechanical  engineer  of  more  than 
ordinary  ability,  who  lives  at  Johannesburg,  South  Africa, 
where  he  is  in  charge  of  some  mining  property. 

Doctor  Behr  joined  the  Academy  on  February  6,  1854. 
The  old  records  of  the  proceedings  show  how  greatly  the 
Academy   was   benefited    by    the   admission  of  the   new 
member.     It  was  then  less  than  a  year  old.     Its  founders, 
deeply  impressed  as  they  were  with  the  importance  of 
sciehtitic  research  in  this   at  that  time  unexplored  state, 
were  mostly  amateurs,  although  by  incessant  study  and 
devotion  to  science,  some  of  them,  "like  our  late  Doctor 
Kellogg,    gradually    attained    an    eminence    where    they 
ranked  with    the    best.     Into  this  group  of    worthy  but 
little-schooled  gentlemen  came  Behr  with  his  thorough 
m    scientific  training,  his  solid  learning,  his  rich  experience 
•"    gathered   during  long    and    successful    travels,    and    his 
K    ability  to  distinguish  the  truly  new  and  interesting  from 
g^    observations    and    discoveries   that    had    been  made  be- 
~^    fore.     From  California,  which  after  centuries  of  obscurity 
^    had  suddenly  arisen  to  prominence  and  fame,  the  scien- 
tt    tific  world  expected  much;  and  it  was  largely  due  to  the 
care   of    Doctor    Behr  that  those  hopes  were  not  disap- 
pointed, and  that  only  such  discoveries  were  published 
as  would  command  attention — a  result  not  easy  to  accom- 
plish among  amateurs  in  danger  of  thinking  the  showy, 
popular  side  to  be  also  the  most  important  one. 

Doctor  Behr's  learning  and  memory  were  truly  sur- 
prising, and  by  no  means  limited  to  the  branches  of  nat- 
ural science  which  he  had  chosen  as  specialties.  He  was 
an  excellent  linguist,  speaking  six  or  more  modern  lan- 
guages;   he    had    made    a    deep    study    of    comparative 

[  3  ] 


293224 


philolouy.  and  of  the  mythology  and  theology  of  the  East 
Indian  cidts;  lie  had  acquired  a  very  good  knowledge  of 
Hebrew  and  Sanskrit,  and  was  acquainted  with  the 
languages  spoken  by  the  Australian  savages  and  by  the 
>hdays  in  Java  and  the  Philippines,  as  well  as  with  the 
tongues  of  the  various  branches  of  the  great  Slavonian 
nation.  His  scholarship  in  Greek  and  Latin  was  of  much 
use  to  those  who  had  discovered  new  species  in  botany  or 
other  sciences  and  who  did  not  feel  safe  in  their  Latinity. 
Even  eastern  scientists  often  consulted  him  thereon,  and 
were  sometimes  astonished  at  the  blunders  he  discovered 
in  their  Gra?co-Latin  make-ups.  He  frequently  astound- 
ed his  oldest  friends  by  opening  up  to  them  a  vein  of 
knowledge  on  some  subject  with  which  they  had  never 
thought  him  to  be  familiar:  Behr  could  and  did  say 
something  interesting  on  almost  every  subject  brought 
up  for  discussion  at  the  meetings  of  our  Academy.  As 
he  rarely  missed  a  meeting  during  the  half  century  of 
his  ihembership  (except  during  the  last  few  years,  when 
the  intirmities  of  age  prevented  his  attendance),  we  sel- 
dom missed  hearing  something  interesting  or  instructive 
from  him  when  others  remained  silent.  Behr  was  always 
ready  to  helj)  the  younger  or  less  informed  members  in 
their  researches,  and  assisted  hundreds  of  farmers,  fruit- 
raiseri>,,ahd  gardeners  in  the  manifold  troubles  which  be- 
set the  cultivation  of  plants  and  trees  in  a  new  country.  His 
correspondence  on  such  ])oints  reached  all  over  the  Coast. 
But  while  Behr  was  always  kind,  patient,  and  even  in- 
dulgent to  the  searcher  for  information,  he  was  a  sworn 
enemy  of  all  scientific  humbug,  of  quacks  and  false  pre- 
tenders. He  did  not  make  it  his  business  to  expose  them, 
but  he  never  refrained  from  expressing  his  opinion  of 
them,  quite  regardless  of  person  or  station.  Thus  he  did 
not  fail  to  make  some  bitter  enemies,  to  the  great  detri- 
ment of  financial  success  in  his  profession.     In  the  early 

[  4  ] 


//.^,  /^^^u^^^- 


days  San  Francisco  was  El  Dorado  not  only  for  the  mi- 
ners, but  also  for  so-called  physicians  who  were  in  real- 
ity students  who  had  failed  to  pass  their  examinations  or 
former  hospital-stewards  or  enterprising  barbers,  who 
had  affixed  unto  themselves  the  doctor-title.  Most  of  the 
regular  physicians  gave  to  these  pretenders  the  benefit  of 
the  cloak  of  professional  ethics.  Behr  never  did  and 
never  hesitated  to  ridicule  them.  One  of  their  number, 
who  held  sway  in  a  local  German  paper  because  he  wrote 
well  and  gratis,  became  Behr's  furious  enemy.  He  found 
nothing  vulnerable  in  Behr's  blameless  life  and  solid 
knowledge.  But  Behr  was  a  Catholic,  and,  for  a  modern 
scientist,  had  exceptionally  strong  religious  feelings.  This 
sufficed  for  his  adversary,  who  charged  him  with  being 
in  secret  affiliated  with  the  Jesuits.  He  started  in  his 
paper  the  ever  popular  Lutheran  pastime  of  Jesuit-bait- 
ing. For  years  every  number  contained  a  leader  against 
the  Jesuits,  winding  up  with  a  denunciation  of  Doctor 
Behr  as  one  of  the  most  dangerous  of  them.  It  was  a 
lie,  but  it  worked  well.  Behr's  patients,  mostly  honest 
but  somewhat  dull  North  German  (and  consequently 
Lutheran)  grocers,  butchers,  and  other  tradespeople,  who 
had  been  brought  up  in  the  belief  that  a  Jesuit  was  the 
very  twin-brother  of  the  '  Gott-sei-bei-uns ',  left  him; 
and  he  had  to  sell  the  land  which  he  had  secured  at  the 
corner  of  Bryant  and  Fifth  streets,  and  start  afresh  to 
establish  a  practice  among  the  more  intelligent  German 
residents.  He  revenged  himself  by  pointing  sarcastic 
arrows,  which  mutual  friends  never  failed  to  wing  to  the 
target  for  which  they  were  intended.  For  instance,  dis- 
covering a  particularly  obnoxious  louse,  he  named  it 
after  his  enemy.  Doctor  Behr  used  to  make  light  of  the 
matter,  but  a  week  before  his  death  he  confessed  to  the 
writer  how  deeply  he  had  suffered  under  those  vile 
calumnies. 

[  5  ] 


293224 


-  Nor  (lid  Belir's  sliarp  and  ready  wit  spare  the  ))olitical 
officials  who  were  appointed  l)y  the  State  or  Federal 
government  to  take  charge  of  the  hotanical  or  entomo- 
logical interests  of  California  although  the}'  possessed  but 
the  flimsiest  knowledge.  In  such  matters  he  was  brave  to 
the  point  of  recklessness.  He  would  listen  respectfully  to 
the  warnings  of  his  friends,  but  he  never  followed  them. 

Although  Doctor  Behr  was  second  to  none  in  medical 
knowledge  and  kept  well  posted  on  the  progress  of 
medical  science,  it  can  not  be  said  that  he  loved  his 
profession.  Still  less  did  he  understand  the  art,  so  highly 
developed  among  modern  physicians,  of  making  it  i)ay. 
On  receiving  the  degree  of  doctor  of  medicine,  in  accord- 
ance with  an  old  mediaeval  custom,  he  had  to  take  a  Latin 
oath  to  hel})  the  needy  sick  without  regard  to  remunera- 
tion.    This  oath  he  kept  conscientiously. 

But  undoubtedly  his  happiest  days  were  those  when 
he  escaped  from  his  practice  and  made  excursions  into  the 
neighboring  counties  in  search  of  plants  and  butterflies. 
Experience  had  taught  him  never  to  go  alone ;  so  he 
always  took  along  some  trusty  friend,  a  few  members  of 
the  Academy,  or  some  of  his  students  after  he  became 
professor  of  botany  at  the  Pharmaceutical  College.  Surely 
none  who  had  the  good  fortune  to  go  with  him  on  those 
excursions  will  ever  forget  the  genial  old  man,  always 
witty,  humorous,  and  ready  to  teach,  and  his  almost 
childlike  pleasure  when  he  found  a  rare  plant  or  insect. 
His  medical  friends  probably  envied  him  his  courage  in 
so  frequently  putting  aside  professional  cares  and  possible 
emoluments ;  but  as  those  relaxations  contributed  so 
largely  toward  keeping  him  in  robust  health  and  giving 
him  so  many  years  of  life,  he  proved  himself  in  the  end 
the  wisest  of  them  all. 

Behr's  most  beloved  specialty,  as  is  widely  known,  was 
the  study  of  butterflies.      He  commenced  collecting  them 

[  6  ] 


ill  early  youth,  and  gradually  gathered  a  large  coUeetiou 
notable  for  the  rarity,  excellent  preservation,  and  scien- 
tific arrangement  of  the  specimens — a  collection  which  if 
it  were  located  nearer  the  centers  of  scientific  exchange, 
sa}^  in  London,  ^vonld  re})reseiit  a  value  of  thousands  of 
dollars. 

Over  twelve  years  ago,  when  he  retired  from  his  medical 
practice,  he  presented  this  collection  to  our  Academy  with 
the  understanding  that  it  would  be  left  under  his  care  uj) 
to  his  death — he  to  receive  the  usual  curator's  salary. 
This  agreement  our  boards  of  trustees  have  faithfully 
kept.  It  is  one  of  the  most  gratifying  returns  from 
James  Lick's  bounty,  that  we  have  thus  been  enabled  to 
grant  to  this  worthy  man  and  eminent  scientist  an  ideal 
old  age — an  old  age  free  from  pecuniaiy  care,  venerated 
by  friends  in  all  walks  of  life,  in  scientific  surroundings, 
with  his  collection  about  him  (the  life  work  so  dear  to  his 
heart),  within  the  walls  of  this  Academy  which  he  loved 

so  well. 

f.  gutzkow, 

George  Chismore, 

Alice  Eastwood, 

Committee. 


[  -  ] 


UNlVtKuii  I    >^i     ~" 

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